African Game Trails 
535 
into it, and back it went, only again to come 
out and to receive another bullet; and he 
killed it. It was an old male, in good con¬ 
dition, weighing one hundred and twenty- 
six pounds. The trap was not big enough 
to contain his whole paw, and he had been 
caught firmly by one toe. The thorn bush 
acted as a drag, which prevented him from 
going far, and yet always yielded somewhat 
when he pulled. A bear thus caught would 
have chewed up the trap or else pulled his 
foot loose, even at the cost of sacrificing the 
toe; but the cats are more sensitive to pain. 
This leopard was smaller than any full- 
grown male cougar I have ever killed, and 
yet cougars often kill game rather heavier 
"than leopards usually venture upon; yet 
very few cougars indeed would show any¬ 
thing like the pluck and ferocity shown by 
this leopard, and characteristic of its kind. 
Kermit killed a waterbuck of a kind new 
to us, the sing-sing. He also killed two 
porcupines and two baboons. The porcu¬ 
pines are terrestrial animals, living in bur¬ 
rows to which they keep during the day¬ 
time. They are much heavier than, and in 
all their ways totally different from, our 
sluggish tree porcupines. The baboons 
were numerous around this camp, living 
both among the rocks and in the tree tops. 
They are hideous creatures. They ravage 
the crops and tear open new-born lambs to 
get at the milk inside them; and where the 
natives are timid and unable to harm them, 
they become wantonly savage and aggres¬ 
sive and attack and even kill women and 
children. In Uganda, Cuninghame had once 
been asked by a native chief to come to his 
village and shoot the baboons, as they had 
just killed two women, badly bitten several 
children, and caused such a reign of terror 
that the village would be abandoned if they 
were not killed or intimidated. He him¬ 
self saw the torn and mutilated bodies of 
the dead women; and he stayed in the 
village a week, shooting so many baboons 
that the remainder were thoroughly cowed. 
Baboons and boars are the most formidable 
of all foes to the dogs that hunt them—just 
as leopards are of all wild animals those 
most apt to prey on dogs. A baboon’s 
teeth and hands are far more formidable 
weapons than those of any dog, and only a 
very few wholly exceptional dogs of huge 
size, and great courage and intelligence, can 
single-handed contend with an old male. 
But we saw a settler whose three big ter¬ 
riers could themselves kill a full-grown 
